Improvement in leather belting



NITED STATES PATN'I QFFICE.

TIMOTHY GINGRAS, OF BUFFALO, EW YORK, ASSIGN OR OF THREE-FOURTHS HIS RIGHT TO IV. H. GARDNER, .GEO. I. PUTNAM, AND BRADFORD TA- BER, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN LEATHER BELTING.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 206,556, dated July 30, 1878; application filed April 1, 1878.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, TIMOTHY GINGRAS, of Buffalo, in the county of Erie and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements on Leather Belting and I do hereby declare that the following description of my said invention, taken in connection with the accompanying sheet of drawings, forms a full, clear, and exact specification, which will enable others skilled inthe art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention has general reference to leather belting; and itconsists in the peculiar method of making and securing the laps, substantially as and for the purpose hereinafter fully set forth and described.

In the drawings hereinbefore mentioned, Figure 1 is a plan, and Fig. 2 a sectional View, otmy improved lap. Fig. 3 are detached views of the double-pointed tacks used for securing the edges of the laps.

Like letters of reterence indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

A A are two jointed portions of a leather belting. The ends of these pieces are, previous to cementing, cut at an angle, as illustratcd in Fig. 1, at B, and then. scraped to a sharp edge, after which the pieces are cemented together in the usual manner. To further sceure the edges of the laps, double-poi nted tacks U are placed on the edges and the corners a, and thus prevent them from curling up and separating. These tacks may be made of any suitable material-brass, iron, &c.and the points 1) should be of a suflicient length to allow them to be clinched on the opposite side from that in which they are inserted, and they are made with two points, placed a suitable distance apart, so as to enable them being placed on each side of the edge of the lap, and thus to cover the corners a aml hold the treme ends of t-hcjoint, as heretofore described.

The double-pointed tacks may be formed either in one piece of metal, as illustrated in Fig. 3, or produced of a perforated plate, through which separate tacks are passed, as shown in the same figure.

The object of thus beveling the ends of the joints and fastening them in the manner described is to prevent the laps from separating, which, with the usual straight or round corner laps, often happens, and thus causes serious trouble with belt-shifters and a speedy destruction of the belt.

In joints for belts having rounded corners this objection is not altogether overcome, while, at the same time, they are somewhat expensive to produce; nor does this joint prevent the curling up of the edges of the lap when running in the wrong directionthat is, toward instead of from the pulleyswhich objection is entirely overcome by my joint, where r the corners and edge of the lap are held down by the tacks C, placed over and covering said corners and edges. This method of fastening will also avoid the curling up of the edges when the belting is crossedin fact, make the separation and destruction of the lap-joint an impossibility.

I am aware that joints for leather belting have been made by cutting the ends of the sections angular to form pointed tongues and by producing depressions or cavities in these ends to admit the pointed tongues, and thereby to protect the selvagcs of the cavity parts, as shown in the patent to J. l\lcDugall, October 11,1859,N 25,749; and I do therefore not claim such a lay-joint, which, in fact, re duces the strength of the belting in the said joint to one-half of that of any other part, owing to the depressions formed on the lap ends, and is therefore very objectionable.

I am also aware of the patents to Underwood, October 28, 1862, and Ourtiss, February 1t), 1878, and hence do not claim such as my invention; but

What I desire to secure to me by Letters Patent of the United States is The combination of tapering corresponding ends A and A, having their corners cut straight across at B, with double-pointed tacks O at the angles formed by said lines B with, the terminal lines of the belting, whereby the corners of the beltin g ends are prevented from curling and cheapness of construction attained, substantially as set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I have hereto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

TIMOTHY GINGRAS.

Attest:

MICHAEL J. STARK, Gno. P. PUTNAM. 

